The California Transportation Journal, much like other publications across the United States, has bowed to progress and will begin publishing an electronic-only magazine. No more paper. In some ways it’s like imagining Gutenberg without a printing press. Something feels a little, well, missing…

However, the future is the future, and we plucked up our courage, considered the hard necessity of tough economic times, and made the decision. Lovely full-colored paper editions are great. They can be laid on the coffee table to be admired, or picked up to be read over breakfast. But they are also expensive, and in an avant garde world of Twitter, e-mails, Facebook and other social networking, an electronic-only edition just seemed the right thing to do.

So why not try something new? And here it is. You will find stories that illustrate the forward-looking nature of the California Department of Transportation.

Bart Ney and Andrew Gordon from Caltrans District 4 in the Bay Area provided us with a story about repairing the old San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, with a curious gadget that engineers call an “eyebar.” Don’t expect to see such an anachronism on the new Bay Bridge when it opens in about three years!

We also think you’ll be interested in something that most people rarely consider: what’s with those boulders that sit precariously above some California roadways? Do they ever tumble down? Well, we’re glad you asked. Kelly Markham, from Caltrans District 7 (Los Angeles and Ventura counties) offers the adamantine truth about rockfall peril.

For train enthusiasts, we have the latest on progress toward California’s anticipated high-speed rail system. And, in northern California, we can give you a bird’s eye view — well, OK, more of an eagle cam perspective — of a pair of American bald eagles that came to live at the site of a Caltrans construction project, and liked it enough to raise a number of broods of all-American raptors.